Requirements

Adelphi University's wide variety of undergraduate programs provide students with extensive knowledge and skills in their particular disciplines. Also part of the mission of the University is to provide its students with the skills and knowledge that all individuals need to lead good and productive lives and to become valuable citizens of their communities. These aims are addressed explicitly in the General Education program, a set of course requirements designed to ensure that Adelphi graduates have the knowledge and the skills to be successful throughout their lives.

Beginning in fall 2011, we are phasing in a new set of General Education requirements that revise those put into place in fall 1999. These requirements will apply only to new first year students entering in that semester. They apply to new first year students in all succeeding semesters, and to new transfer students entering in fall 2012 and thereafter.

The Faculty has passed a reformed general education program in which course requirements provide breath via distribution requirements while aligning with the undergraduate general learning goals. ensuring that students receive direct instruction and feedback in six fundamental areas: Information Literacy, Critical and Integrative Thinking, Communication, Quantitative Reasoning, Artistic Understanding and Practice, and Global Learning/Civic Engagement. Our intention is that these requirements will both insure that all students receive some instruction in these areas, and focus students' attention to the teaching and learning in these areas that occurs in many of our courses.

The new program differs from the former program in two major ways:

• It is based on course content, rather than on the department or program that offers the course.

• It specifies the skills and knowledge that students are to learn, and identifies the courses that teach and assess these. (Some courses satisfy more than one requirement.)

Because the two programs will overlap during the period beginning in fall 2011 and ending when undergraduates who entered under the "current" program have left the University, both programs are outlined below.

Both programs share the following requirements:

In the first semester of the freshman year students will take a one-credit course entitled First Year Orientation Experience. This course serves as an introduction to university life in its various curricular and cocurricular aspects. Discussions will include majors, career planning, student activities, volunteer service opportunities, and the complex community and social issues faced by new college students. The course also covers library and research skills, including the use of information technology, introduces students to resources on campus (Career Development Center, Learning Center, Writing Center, Computer Center), and discusses important social, academic, and community issues.

An English Composition course (ENG 0122-107) is taken in the first year. This three-credit course helps develop and improve writing skills that are essential to clear thinking and to success in college and beyond.

The freshman year also includes a First Year Seminar. This three-credit course introduces freshmen to intellectual life at Adelphi University by providing them with a learning experience that exposes them to exciting and challenging ideas in a seminar format with professors teaching in their area of expertise. The seminar format provides opportunity for extensive discussion and writing assignments that will promote the development of critical thinking skills. Although a wide range of subject choices is available to students, each seminar has the common goal of improving students’ awareness of global issues and appreciation of the range and value of human diversity.

Additional Requirements for Students Matriculating Prior to Fall 2011

The English Composition course (ENG 0122-107) described above is considered a first competency course. All students are required to take an additional complementary course that will provide additional skills useful in many subject areas throughout and after college. Students can fulfill this second competency requirement by selecting one of the following courses:

Students are encouraged to complete this requirement early in the college career and are urged to use the requirement to develop new skills or gain strength in areas that need improvement. To this end, these courses may be taken on a Pass/Fail basis.

The final component of the General Education program is a Distribution Course Requirement designed to encourage students to learn the methods of inquiry and subject matter in a wide spectrum of disciplines. Every student must complete at least six credits in each of the following four areas: the arts (art/art history, communications, performing arts, music), humanities and languages (English, history, international studies, philosophy), natural sciences and mathematics (biology, biochemistry/chemistry, computer science/mathematics, physics), and the social sciences (anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, sociology) for a total of 24 credits. Courses in interdisciplinary programs (Environmental Studies, African American and Ethnic Studies) are allocated to one of the four areas above as appropriate. These distribution requirements can be fulfilled by any courses that meet major or minor requirements in the discipline. In addition, students can choose from introductory level non-major courses in several of these disciplines. Students should consult their advisers and the Directory of Classes for help in selecting these courses. Courses taken to meet the distribution requirement can also serve to meet major or minor requirements. The intention of this provision is to permit students who become intrigued with a discipline while meeting distribution requirements to use the course(s) taken toward a major, minor, or second major.

Additional Requirements in the New (Learning Goal-Based) ProgramFor students matriculating in Fall 2011 and later and for transfer students beginning Fall 2012.

Some courses satisfy multiple requirements, for distribution and learning goal requirements.

Courses that fulfill these requirements appear on a list on our web site and may be searched for on course listings or in Course Search, both accessible via CLASS on the electronic portal, E-campus.

Transfer Students
Transfer students may be exempt from some of these requirements and will receive credit for courses taken at other institutions that are equivalent to General Education courses. University advisers and admissions officers can counsel students in these matters. Specific requirements for transfer students are also available.

Students who have received an A.A. or A.S. degree (but not an A.A.S. degree) from an accredited institution prior to their transfer to Adelphi are exempt from all General Education requirements.

Students who matriculate at Adelphi with 60 or more transfer credits but without an A.A. or A.S. (or B.A. or B.S.) degree can fulfill the General Education Distribution requirements by successfully completing 6 credits of approved Social Science courses, 6 credits of approved Science/Math courses, and a total of 12 credits in any combination of approved courses in the Humanities and Arts prior to graduation. (These may include courses taken at the prior institution from which they have earned credits.)

Under this program, courses taken at other institutions after a student matriculates at Adelphi may not be used to fulfill learning goal requirements.

In summary, for students matriculating prior to fall 2011, the credit and course requirements in General Education requirements are:

For students matriculating commencing fall 2011 and for transfer students in fall 2012, the numbers of credits and courses required to fulfill General Education requirements are variable because a single course may fulfill up to two Learning Goal Requirements and one distribution requirement; the requirements are for courses, rather than credits.

Undergraduate Language Requirements

The language requirements have changed. They depend upon a students' matriculation date. For students entering in:

Fall 2009

• All incoming freshmen have to meet a Level 4 language competency if they are majoring in the College of Arts & Sciences with a B.A. degree.

• Freshmen that are in the STEP program, who are majoring in the College of Arts & Sciences with a B.A. degree, will need to meet a Level 3 language competency.

• Transfer students are exempt from meeting the language requirement.

Fall 2010

• All freshmen, including those in the STEP program, have to meet a Level 4 language competency if they are majoring in the College of Arts & Sciences with a B.A. degree.

• Transfer students, excluding those in the STEP program, have to meet a Level 4 language competency if they are majoring in the College of Arts & Sciences with a B.A. degree.

• STEP transfer students majoring in the College of Arts & Sciences with a B.A. degree will need to meet a Level 3 language competency.
  

Fall 2011

• Both freshmen and transfer students, including those in the STEP program, have to meet Level 4 language competency if they are majoring in the College of Arts & Sciences with a B.A. degree.

Fall 2012

• Both freshmen and transfer students, including those in the STEP program, have to meet Level 4 language competency if they are majoring in the College of Arts & Sciences with a B.A. degree.

Level 3 and Level 4 language requirements may be met by evidence of transfer college level langauge credit, by on-line exam (under Adelphi supervision), or by taking relevant language courses at Adelphi. Click here to view more details.


Undergraduate Capstone Requirement
Every undergraduate is required to complete a capstone course or project as a requirement of graduation. The particular requirement is determined by the major in which the student is enrolled.

The capstone is a culminating course or project in which students are expected to integrate their learning and produce a significant piece of intellectual work, such as a research project, a policy paper, an art object, or some similar product that demonstrates their learning. The experience may be organized in any number of ways, including senior seminars, group or individual research projects, presentations, exhibitions, performances, independent study, portfolios, or internships.